May 9th 2017. Exshaw, Alberta
Round Trip: 10 hours, Elevation Gain: 1000m
Easy Scramble for Heart Mountain & Grant MacEwan Peak
Moderate Scramble for Twin Towers/Jewell Peak
*Updated Jan 2026* According to Peak Visor, the twin peaks are labelled as Twin Towers with the eastern twin (Second Twin in my report) labelled as Jewell Peak. I have since downgraded the rating of this route to a moderate scramble given that Nick and I bypassed the crux. Likewise, I’ve adjust the height from 2275m to match the 2320m listed on Peak Visor. The standard traverse is listed in Kane’s (2016) Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies 3rd Edition though I don’t recall if he uses the name Jewell Peak to describe the eastern twin.
This was an early season multi-peak mission with my buddy Nick Fitzhardinge – one of many Nick & Nick tag team missions. He led this trip which begins with scrambling up the western ridge of Heart Mountain (easy but hands on scrambling) then a traverse towards the center of the ridge named Grant McEwan Peak. If following the standard route from Grant McEwan there is a nasty 4th class downclimb on route to the Twin Towers. Given the early season conditions and wet lingering snow, Nick and I opted to skirt around this crux which would make for a longer but less technical ascent. Worth noting that at the time of the trip, we referred to these high points as the Twin Peaks, and I vaguely recall Nick using the name Jewell Peak for one of them.
We started the trip by scrambling up the west end of Heart Mountain 2135m via the parking lot for Heart Creek. This is an easy scramble that takes approximately two hours from car to summit. A very short crux mid route provides a few short moments of moderate scrambling, with the worn smoothness of the rock proving the biggest challenge. I’ve found with the high volume of traffic up this mountain that the holds in the crux have been polished too smooth. You can bypass this crux by travelling around to the climber’s left by a few meters to access a ledge. The ledge is equally exposed but offers better holds with more grip (or at least it did in 2017). Once above this area its easy scrambling again to the top.
The Traverse from Heart Mountain to Grant MacEwan Peak took us 45 minutes and involved nothing more than a leisurely hike. Normally one would be greeted with views of the front ranges and foothills. We instead had low clouds and a few wet snow flakes. The Traverse from Grant MacEwan to Twins is much more involved versus the hike over from Heart Mountain’s west summit. Along the ridge there is a difficult down climb section that requires route finding skills and where repelling might be ideal for less confident parties. To avoid this unknown section we descended the east side of the ridge down to treeline (moderate scrambling), and potholed our way through waist deep slush around and bypassed under the crux section. Progress was slow in the rotten snow.
Once around and under the 4th class crux, we stopped to examine it and determine how feasible it would be to scramble up this way on return. Given that this was only my second scramble of the year, I wasn’t feeling up to a 4th class scramble that day. We ruled it out and could consider alternative options once up on the Twins.
Continuing onwards to the Twins from where we gained the ridge it was an easy-moderate scramble up the First Twin, with some mild exposure on the climber’s right. We signed the register and were hit with snow flurries at the top. What a great feeling up top – it sure was a lot of work for a 2300m peak!
It took us twenty minutes to then reach the Second Twin – which years later I learnt is named Jewell Peak. We were surprised to see that the Second Tower also had a summit register despite the First Twin having one. Still debating whether or not that counts as two peaks or one…
The adventure doesn’t end there. We ruled out side hilling the way we had ascended, and had also ruled out attempting the crux in the snowy weather. Instead, we decided to descend the northeastern slope under the Second Twin to make for a full traverse. In dropping down the slope we made a complete traverse of the twins. The trade off was a thick bushwhack in the valley below to come across and back up the southeast slope of Grant MacEwan. It was grueling work in the late spring snow but ended up being very direct. The southeast slope of Grant MacEwan turns out to be a massive toilet field for the local bighorn sheep – there was more scat than vegetation!
Once back on Grant MacEwan Peak we followed the scrambling route back across and down the west end of Heart Mountain. There may have been talk of finishing the east traverse of Heart Mountain but we were both done for the day. We had just scrambled Ship’s Prow Peak the previous day. Excellent start to the 2017 season!
Steep Sheep 